Sanders Would Raise Payroll Taxes on Everyone to Fund Paid Family Leave

18 Oct 2015

Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said his tax increases would “hit everybody” becuse he would raise the payroll tax to pay for paid family and medical leave.

Sanders said, “I think if you are looking about guaranteeing paid family and medical leave, which every other major country has so that when a mom gives birth she doesn’t have to go back to work in two weeks. Dad or mom can stay home with the kids. That will require a small increase in the payroll tax.”

Stephanopoulos said, “That’s going to hit everybody.”

Sanders agreed saying, “That would hit everybody, yeah, It would but it would mean we were drawing the rest of the industrialized world and make sure that when a mom has a baby she can in fact stay home with that baby for three months rather than go back to work at the end of one week. We are the only country, only major country that doesn’t guarantee paid family and medical leave. We do a lot of great things in this country but we are behind many other countries in protecting the middle class and working families.”